feral cats

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Invasive species

Feral cats

Name: Sunny Bandholz

Teacher: Soni, Jatin Subject: year 10 geography

The aim of this report is to research the impact of the feral cats introduction to Australia, how they are currently being managed and whether this management strategy or strategies has been effective.

Feral cats can be effective hunters

of small animals

The chosen invasive species I've decided to do a report on is the feral cats.

The cats are a widespread across mainland Australia, Tasmania and on many off-shore islands and occur in all environments. They remain a significant threat to the survival of a broad suite of native fauna, especially small mammals and ground nesting birds in open habitats. They have been linked to numerous extinctions of mammals and birds from off-shore islands.

Cats (Felis catus) are one of the primary causes of declines and extinctions of Australian native mammals and birds in the last 200 years. Cats possibly caused regional extinctions of up to 13 species of ground-dwelling mammals and contributed to regional extinctions of a suite of ground-nesting and ground-foraging birds from western NSW. The spread of cats throughout much of the world is thought to have originated in Egypt, where they were popular and effectual at controlling mouse populations.

Cats that had been domesticated began to form feral populations after their offspring began living away from human contact. Feral cats have been intentionally introduced to some areas to attempt to control pests. In the 1800s, thousands of cats were introduced to areas bordering settlements near (gold dig) sites and farms as an attempt to manage populations of mice, rabbits, and rats.